 "Virtual world, real contests")
On January 14, two political events took place in cyber world. The principal Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began seeking donations on Facebook and its website for the Lok Sabha elections. And, former Bihar chief minister and head of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Lalu Prasad, made his Twitter debut.
"Mera majakiya andaz Twitter par bhi jari rahega (I will continue with my humour on Twitter as well)," he said in one of his posts. Though most of his voters are in the countryside, where three of every four people do not have toilets, Prasad was quick to launch an online offensive against political rival and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. He now has 15,000 followers on Twitter.
Besides posting pictures with cows, Prasad engages in debates with youth and advises them to use Google to compare the growth rate of Bihar between 1947-1990 and 1990-2004, when his party was in power. (WOOING THE ELECTORATE WITH TWEETS)
But the battle in the virtual world is being waged from Delhi, headquarters of the two national parties, BJP and Congress, and also the new kid on the block, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
THE NEW INFLUENTIALS
…AND Some OLD
Though Congress MP Shashi Tharoor introduced Twitter to most Indians, the BJP is the first party to use social media to reach voters. "We have been preparing for the last four and a half years. The Congress was late to start. The AAP is the only party close to us in terms of reaching out to people on social media," says the head of the BJP's IT cell, Arvind Gupta.
The BJP has a team of 40 functionaries whose job is to transmit speeches by Narendra Modi and other party leaders live to India's nearly 192 million internet users. Apart from the videos, they generate content from speeches, manifestos and propaganda material, to be released on all online platforms. The team works round the clock, from an access-controlled room.
The party claims it doesn't launch personal attacks against rivals. At the same time, it can't stop people who in their individual capacity troll those who criticise either the party or its prime ministerial candidate Modi.
In a recent incident, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Goa National Students' Union of India president, Hasiba B Amin, who featured in a television advertisement seeking support for Rahul Gandhi, were trolled and abused online. Amin had to file a police complaint.
This task is purportedly performed by an army of one million volunteers raised in the 160 Lok Sabha seats, where social media is expected to influence the voters.
The BJP says unlike the Congress, it has not hired any external agency. Of late, the ruling Congress, too, has, become hyperactive on social media. It has hired an agency for an undisclosed amount and created a youthful team to counter allegations and propagate their achievements of the past 10 years.
Their Twitter accounts post links to online videos discrediting Modi's claims about his achievements. Then there are blogs and websites to carry the party's views. Attempts to reach Rohtak MP Deependra Hooda, Congress in-charge of social media, remained unanswered.
It is the AAP which is benefiting the most social media. It is seeking the help of high-profile members such as V Balakrishnan, former Infosys CFO, to tune its social media strategy. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal realises the importance of social media as his party doesn't have cadre support on the ground. He posted a spoof of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and it immediately went viral.
"Online funding, connecting with volunteers in different cities and creating political awareness as we are a one-year-old party are the three main goals of our social media campaign," says Arun Srivastava, member of the AAP's technology and social media governance team.
Currently, the party puts out between five and eight posts on its Facebook page that has received 1.6 million likes. The Congress and the BJP Facebook pages have 1.9 million and 2.5 million likes respectively.
"After our Delhi campaign, we realised social media can only take you further till some extent. It can add five-seven per cent more to your effectiveness but it can't win you elections. For that, you need to strengthen your ground team," Srivastava adds.
Gupta of the BJP has a somewhat similar view. "The Lok Sabha elections of 2014 will be India's first cyber election, when 55 per cent of the population will have access to the internet," he says.
"Mera majakiya andaz Twitter par bhi jari rahega (I will continue with my humour on Twitter as well)," he said in one of his posts. Though most of his voters are in the countryside, where three of every four people do not have toilets, Prasad was quick to launch an online offensive against political rival and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. He now has 15,000 followers on Twitter.
Besides posting pictures with cows, Prasad engages in debates with youth and advises them to use Google to compare the growth rate of Bihar between 1947-1990 and 1990-2004, when his party was in power. (WOOING THE ELECTORATE WITH TWEETS)
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Other regional satraps have also clambered on the social media bandwagon. Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, J Jayalalithaa and Akhilesh Yadav have large audiences on either Twitter or Facebook.
But the battle in the virtual world is being waged from Delhi, headquarters of the two national parties, BJP and Congress, and also the new kid on the block, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
THE NEW INFLUENTIALS
…AND Some OLD
Though Congress MP Shashi Tharoor introduced Twitter to most Indians, the BJP is the first party to use social media to reach voters. "We have been preparing for the last four and a half years. The Congress was late to start. The AAP is the only party close to us in terms of reaching out to people on social media," says the head of the BJP's IT cell, Arvind Gupta.
The BJP has a team of 40 functionaries whose job is to transmit speeches by Narendra Modi and other party leaders live to India's nearly 192 million internet users. Apart from the videos, they generate content from speeches, manifestos and propaganda material, to be released on all online platforms. The team works round the clock, from an access-controlled room.
The party claims it doesn't launch personal attacks against rivals. At the same time, it can't stop people who in their individual capacity troll those who criticise either the party or its prime ministerial candidate Modi.
In a recent incident, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Goa National Students' Union of India president, Hasiba B Amin, who featured in a television advertisement seeking support for Rahul Gandhi, were trolled and abused online. Amin had to file a police complaint.
This task is purportedly performed by an army of one million volunteers raised in the 160 Lok Sabha seats, where social media is expected to influence the voters.
The BJP says unlike the Congress, it has not hired any external agency. Of late, the ruling Congress, too, has, become hyperactive on social media. It has hired an agency for an undisclosed amount and created a youthful team to counter allegations and propagate their achievements of the past 10 years.
Their Twitter accounts post links to online videos discrediting Modi's claims about his achievements. Then there are blogs and websites to carry the party's views. Attempts to reach Rohtak MP Deependra Hooda, Congress in-charge of social media, remained unanswered.
It is the AAP which is benefiting the most social media. It is seeking the help of high-profile members such as V Balakrishnan, former Infosys CFO, to tune its social media strategy. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal realises the importance of social media as his party doesn't have cadre support on the ground. He posted a spoof of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and it immediately went viral.
"Online funding, connecting with volunteers in different cities and creating political awareness as we are a one-year-old party are the three main goals of our social media campaign," says Arun Srivastava, member of the AAP's technology and social media governance team.
Currently, the party puts out between five and eight posts on its Facebook page that has received 1.6 million likes. The Congress and the BJP Facebook pages have 1.9 million and 2.5 million likes respectively.
"After our Delhi campaign, we realised social media can only take you further till some extent. It can add five-seven per cent more to your effectiveness but it can't win you elections. For that, you need to strengthen your ground team," Srivastava adds.
Gupta of the BJP has a somewhat similar view. "The Lok Sabha elections of 2014 will be India's first cyber election, when 55 per cent of the population will have access to the internet," he says.